StudWorks

Looking for best design for 1/12 scale figure arms.

Recommended Posts

Hello LEGO Action Figures community! I build 1/12 scale fully posable figures (like GoodSmile Figma or Kotobukiya figures) of anime characters and I was reevaluating my arm design.

Here's how the arm design I've been using currently looks like, the one on the left I use for short-heighted characters and the one on the right I use for characters who are average-heighted:

400x361.png400x227.png

This design has been reliable for my first few figure creations, but I am facing two problems. One is that the short arm (left) is very crude and looks ugly. I think I made the arm too short, but there are of course, many characters that call for short arm length. I try my best to make my figures' arms as articulated as possible, but I would like to find a way to make arms, short and long, with the exact amount of articulation, but that are more realistic to actual human arms, which is really difficult to achieve in 1/12 scale.

The second problem is that both arms do not have the articulation needed to spread their arms out like this:

400x365.png

So I tried putting a clip on the end of the larger arm's elbow, connecting the rest of the arm but able to achieve the articulation I wanted, but now the upper arm above the elbow is fragile with the removal of a 1x2 plate to make room for the 1x1 bracket, and the elbow clip is only hanging on by a stud. Not exactly the solution I was hoping to achieve. :wacko:

400x669.png640x808.png

 

Below is what the leg design looks like on my figures too. Only showing this because I was curious if the hip design (just a brick with the legs connected to it attached to the bottom of the body) could be improved to look less weird, unless you think it's not weird and fine the way it is.


640x1251.png640x878.png

Is it possible for anyone to help me find the best design for 1/12 scale action figure arms (a 6-stud long design for short figures and a 7-stud long design for average-heighted figures) that look realistic and less blocky than my designs, but are also fully articulated like on a traditional 1/12 scale fully posable action figure?

400x439.png

Like these arms, (figure by Moc_Lobster on Rebrickable) but without the use of ugly gray ball joint pieces and preferably more realistic.

Edited by StudWorks

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Only thing I can think of is using these

30553.png

and the counterpart for the ellbows, and use bars so they can be turned in multiple directions.

Personally I don't like this super small scale, I prefer ~1:6 Scale. You can just work a lot more details in a larger Scale, but I admit you might get some issues with the figures not standing well on 2 Legs due to the added weight. I use Ball joints for the arms and some other places for my Anime Figures, and it works quite well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the advice!

Fortunately I came up with this reliable and most realistically-articulated design for a short arm and a long arm and this is what I'm going to use for now on.

If anyone else in the Lego Action Figure community is interested in making figures on a small scale like this, you're free to use my arm design: :classic:

640x347.png640x456.png640x474.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@StudWorks your design is very flexible, nice.

Clearly you put a lot more focus on range of motion that I do. As long as the figure can do the pose I want it to I am satisfied. And a clean look are more important for me.

Edited by Gray Gear
I am dumb wrists exist

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.